Adolph Martin Schlesinger (1769-1838) - Ölgemälde aus der 1. Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, Fotografie, Berlin, um 1915?

In 1810 Adolf Martin Schlesinger founded a musical publishing house in Berlin. Due to his acumen he soon became a successful business man. Quite early, Schlesinger and Beethoven must have been in contact by letters. When his oldest son Moritz Adolf (1798-about 1859) travelled to Vienna in 1819, his father told him to visit the composer. A warm relationship soon developed between Moritz Schlesinger and Beethoven.

One year later Beethoven offered the Berlin publishing house several of his compositions for publication. From 1821 on, a series of his late chamber music pieces was published, among them piano sonatas op. 109, 110 and 111 and quartets op. 132 and 135. The contact between Beethoven and Adolf Martin Schlesinger and his son Moritz became more intensive in the 1820s. During this time, both publishers repeatedly visited Beethoven in Vienna. After Moritz SChlesinger opened a branch of his father's publishing house in Paris, extensive business relations developed between him and Beethoven.(S.B.)